The Dark Remains - Mark Anthony [183]
“You might want to hurry it up, Vani,” Travis said, his face ashen.
Vani did not answer. Her jaw was clenched. Beneath her hands, the surface of the door began to warp, ripple, like paint on fire.
Dread pulled at Grace, and she looked behind them. The creatures moved swiftly down the corridor. A knot of five coursed some distance ahead of the others. Their long arms dragged as they ran, their talons digging deep furrows in the floor. That was the source of the horrible sound.
“Vani …” Travis said, voice rising.
Grace snapped her head around. The door looked as if it were fading in and out of being. Here and there she caught glimpses of things beyond: a patch of gray sky, part of a parked car.
“Now!” Vani cried.
The door burst open.
They dashed out into the gray afternoon, feet pounding against asphalt. It was a parking lot on the opposite side of the building from where they had entered. Beyond a high, wood fence, Grace could hear the sounds of traffic. She looked back at the open door. Vani had shut it, but already it shuddered under a blow. She backed away. They had seconds at most.
“Run,” Vani said, still backing up, hands before her, ready to strike. “Climb over the fence, get to the road, and flag down a vehicle.”
Grace reached out a hand. “What about you?”
“I will delay them.”
“No,” Travis said. His face was hard. “There are too many. We won’t leave you, Vani.”
Vani turned around, a strange, soft light in her gold eyes. However, before Grace could decide what it really meant, the light was replaced by sparks of anger.
“Do not become a fool, Travis. I will be slowed if I am forced to protect you and Grace. The only way you can help me is to go.”
She was right. Grace grabbed his arm. “Listen to her, Travis. We have to—”
Her words were cut short as something dark and heavy struck her from the side.
Grace rolled to the pavement, stones and bits of broken glass gouging into her hands and cheeks. A sunburst of agony exploded in her stomach, radiating outward from her solar plexus. She managed to raise her head, grimacing in pain, unable to breathe.
It crouched over her, maw open. Ichor drooled from tusklike fangs. It ran a talon over her chest almost gently, as if deciding exactly where to make the incision. Then it pulled its spindly arm back, talons extended, ready to tear her guts out.
The air shimmered behind the gorleth. Before it could strike, its arm bent at a queer angle, eliciting a sharp crack. The thing threw its head back to scream, but there was another blur, and its head twisted on its neck. The gorleth slumped to the asphalt next to Grace. The air grew smooth, and Vani was there.
“Travis!” she called out. “Drop. Now!”
Twenty feet away, Grace saw Travis fling himself to the ground. A snarling shape lunged for him. Vani extended her arm in a precise motion, and a trio of small objects flew out from her coiled hand. Only when they struck their target did Grace see what they were: three sharp triangles of steel.
The gorleth staggered back from Travis, the steel triangles protruding from its chest. It scrabbled at them with its talons, ripping its own flesh, then toppled backward onto the asphalt. The creature convulsed a moment, then grew still, foam bubbling from its gaping mouth. The triangles had not bitten deep. Grace didn’t need to ask to know they had been poisoned.
At last she drew in a ragged breath. The two gorleths that had attacked them were dead, but where had they come from? Then her eyes moved to the roof of the building.
“Yes,” Vani said. “They came at us from above. You must go before more follow.”
She helped Grace up. Travis had climbed to his feet. He started to speak, but at that moment the door of the building flew outward with a sound like thunder. Huddled in a black ball, five gorleths loped toward them across the parking lot.
In an instant, Grace judged the distances and made the calculations.